Perhaps
no occupation presents more difficulties to the amateur or imposes
greater responsibilities upon the expert than that of pharmacy. The fact
that, during a very long and close identification with the drug
business, Mr. Geary has met with exceptional success in the work proves
his natural qualifications of accuracy, intelligence and
trustworthiness. When he left school, scarcely more than a boy, it was
for the purpose of studying the drug business, and as the years passed
he displayed an increasing knowledge of the occupation. From that he
rose by thrift and energy into a financial association with an
old-established drug establishment, and eventually he acquired a large
interest in a western house. When it is remembered that he began without
means or influence and rose from a humble station into prominence and
business success, it will be realized that he possesses abilities of a
high order, and such indeed is his reputation throughout the country
tributary to the city of Sacramento.

It
was during 1881 that Mr. Geary first became a resident of Sacramento,
where later he achieved business success of a high order. For a long
period prior to his removal to the west he had been identified with
Canada and the eastern states, but his residence in our own state has
covered so many years that he is now a typical Californian, loyal to the
progress of the commonwealth, interested in any movement for the general
welfare and a contributor to projects of permanent value to the people.
Of Canadian birth, he was born in London, Canada, in March of 1837, and
received his education in the schools of that city, but at the age of
fifteen left school in order to learn the drug business. When nineteen
years old he went to Philadelphia, Pa., and secured employment with a
large drug firm. As a traveling salesman for that house he visited the
principal cities of the east and gained a comprehensive knowledge of all
that section of country. The west, however, proved so much more alluring
to him than the older-settled east that in 1862 he became a resident of
San Francisco, where he made his home for al- most twenty years,
meanwhile being connected with a wholesale drug firm. Upon coming to
Sacramento and assuming the management of the wholesale drug house of H.
C. Kirk & Co., he became a partner in the business, the title of
which was thereupon changed to Kirk, Geary & Company. Since then he
has built up one of the most important drug houses of its kind in the
state, and he has established a wholesale trade whose customers comprise
retail dealers throughout California, Nevada and Southern Oregon.

Source:
History of Sacramento County, California
Biographical Sketches of The Leading Men and Women of the County Who
Have Been Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
History By: William L. Willis
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California (1913)